The Christmas Eve Village

We had a very busy Christmas Eve with final handmade Christmas crafting and wrapping as well as a lot going on in the kitchen. By the end of the day we had made:

lobster casserole

asian springrolls

spice cookies

peanut butter cookies

secret kiss butter balls

and sugar cookies

As the afternoon went on, the girls became increasingly hyper. We sent them outside and they reappeared with piles of greens to decorate the house and a stack of birchbark. I showed them Kristin Nichols' birchbark houses and we all got inspired.

First I scrounged through the trash, fridge, and cupboards for butter boxes and other bits of card stock. We hot glued little houses from the boxes.

Then we hot glued onto the houses layers of birchbark. We all went back out to get pinecones and other bits of materials for decorations.

After we completed the houses, we painted on watered-down craft glue and the sprinkled glitter everywhere. I can tell you that clean-up was not for the faint of heart.

Here's the result:

This was a perfect craft for us. We all loved designing the houses and using the natural materials. Elizabeth kept going and made two, complete with porches, fanlights, and other architectural details. It ate up the rest of the afternoon in a fun, family way.

And, they were absolutely gorgeous on the dining table at night. I actually went and sprinkled more glitter on them after the table was set because they just sparkled in the candlelight.

It was a wonderful way to end our Christmas Eve day.